A.J. Burnett Rumors: Friday

As we heard yesterday, the reported framework for an A.J. Burnett trade between the Pirates and Yankees was that Burnett would join the Bucs in exchange for two minor prospects and $13-$15MM in salary relief. The trade is expected to be finalized within the next day or two, so here's the latest news…

The trade is "nearing [the] finish line," tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The two prospects the Yankees will receive in the deal are A-level players and "not considered much."

I’m hoping, as a Pirates fan, that Burnett will have a really nice bounce back year being in a much more pitcher friendly park and in a division where there is no clear offensive juggernaut….let alone 4 of them!

I think Burnett will certainly do better. He’s had flashes of glory and right now – if the Pirates welcome him with open arms it could only help his mental state. He’d be a WRECK in the Yankees Spring Training camp at this point.

I still think the AL East is better – (and I’m not a pirates fan). The line-up and their ability to score runs for Burnett may be more of an issue because on a bad day, Burnett still got a few wins with the Yankees.

And defense is not all about who’s the fastest. I’m just simply saying the Yankees have a better defensive OF than the Pirates. And I don’t do position by position, I do overall. Position by position is silly. Saying the Pirates OF is better becuase McCuth > Swisher is like saying the Rays lineup is better than the Yankees lineup because Longoria > A-Rod.

Yes, maybe it faster, but that doesn’t mean they get to every ball in play and are more likely to. Kind of like how Derek Jeter’s plays at SS sometimes look so hard but several SS’s in the league make that routinely. That’s the way it is with Brett Gardner. You can put either your Yankee Haterade down or stop being a Pirates homer and give credit when it’s due.

“Somebody said the Pirates outfield was faster than the Yankees. This is true.”

I don’t watch the Pirates so how am I to take your word for it to believe they are fast? I will let you know, since you said you dont’ care about the Yankees OF, that Brett Gardner is one of the fastest runners in the game, Curtis Granderson is a fast runner himself, and Nick Swisher is about average. Not horrible, but not great or anything.

So if you can provide me kindly how the Pirates OFer is faster, I’m interesting in knowing.

I don’t get why you are comapring McCutchen to Swisher anyway when McCuth is a CFer and Swisher is a RFer.

If we go position by position like you orginally wanted

Gardner > Tabatha
Granderson = McCuth (maybe a slight edge to McCuth)
Jones > Swisher (but neither don’t seem to be antyhing to brag about since they are both average)

No clearly there are a lot of things you don’t get because you yourself said “I don’t care about the Yankees OF”. Therefore you don’t know how very good the Yankees OF is. You obviously refuse to look at stats.

And correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Jones, McCuth and Tabata all the Pirates starters in the OF? Comparing bench players is fine but agian, they are bench players, small samples.

Not a big upgrade in speed. Granderson is an overrated defensive CF, but that is far from his problems. I’d like to see what he does if he doesn’t walk everybody and give up 5 earned runs a game. Maybe that’ll help him too. lol

I don’t know whose outfield is better defensively, and frankly I don’t care. but please consider a few facts about the Pirates’ OF:

– Garrett Jones is unlikely to play in the OF in 2012
– Jose Tabata moved from LF to RF in 2011, and will likely spend 2012 in RF
– Alex Presley will likely be the main LF in 2012, at least to start the year
– Pirates’ OF UZR stats in 2009-2010 were tainted by an unusual OF shift, where CF McCutchen played closer to LF than straightaway CF; this practice ended when John Russell was fired after the 2010 season
– Nate McLouth might be a waste of roster space at this stage in his career, but the top minor league OF in the Pirates system who may reach the majors this year (Gorkys Hernandez and Starling Marte) both have above average D

in summary, it is reasonable to expect the Pirates’ outfield to play better defense in 2012 than in 2011, and who knows? maybe even better than the Yankees’ OF in 2012

I may start openly crying at work out of elation. Id love to say I wish AJ the best but he has made every 5th day of my life for two years intolerable. That being said, Thanks for game 2 of the 2009 WS and may the lineup cards in the steel city beware.

Low payroll does not always mean poor. I get that the Pirates franchise is not worth much, but it seems that’s more likely related to on field success (or lack thereof) and poor management. You don’t hear the Steelers complain about their attendance and market.

“A bold, sharp major league move”? Picking up a 35 year old starter who’s best days are clearly behind him is bold and sharp? Maybe in the same vein as picking up Derrick Lee and Ryan Ludwick was bold and sharp.

Looking at Burnett’s peripheral numbers (i.e. everything other than ERA) he put up pretty much the exact same numbers as Edwin Jackson last year. The Pirates tried to give Jackson $30MM for 3 years. They’ll end up getting the same pitcher in Burnett for a little over $10MM for 2 years. It’s a great move for the Pirates.

There is NO way to assume they’d be getting the same pitcher as Jackson. That is simply not true.

AJ had a bit of a problem with keeping the ball in the park, if he can cut the HR rate down to something reasonable and keep the strikeout/walk rates in line, then he will be good, but it’s not guaranteed.

AJ’s problem with the long fly ball was only a problem b/c he put guys on base in front of them without forcing them to actually hit the ball! As a result, he gave up 16 HRs with runners on base and his ERA ballooned.

Karstens led the Pirates in HR allowed last year with 22 but he didn’t walk anyone which resulted in 20 of them being solo shots and allowed him to have an ERA of 3.38.

you are justifing a bad contract with another bad contract. two bad contracts don’t make it good. AJ sucks plain and simple. You can compare to whoever but the bottom line is the Yankees and there offense, who made Phil Hughes an 18 game winner and all-star with an era over 4, has no use for AJ. AJ didn’t even have to face the Yankees lineup and failed.

I’m analyzing statistics and realizing that the Pirates are taking a low-risk move here for a guy who actually put up some good numbers last year and clearly still has something left. You’re angry at yet another failed Yankee pitching experiment and focusing solely on ERA.

You are correct. Those obsessed with ERA’s just don’t get it. The underlying stats tell a different story. I don’t think he will be as good as Jackson next year but I doubt the gap is very big. At $7m he is a steal.

I was really hoping that he would have went out West to the Angels for Abreu but oh well.

and vazquez and pavano pitched better with their new teams. i agree burnett could very well turn into a really good pitcher in pittsburgh. playing for the yankees isnt like playing for astros, or the angels. its a very popular team, with alot of history and the ” we dont accept losing ” by the brass and the fans can make it very hard to play there. he showed life though in september when beating boston and when he beat detroit ingame 4 of the ALDS 10-1. he only gave up 4 hits that game. had good velocity there was an inning where he was hitting 96 MPH. so who knows this could be a very good deal for the pirates

I really believe MLB is forcing Pitts to make this trade. It doesn’t make sense one of the lowest payroll teams spending bad money on a 35 yr old failed yankee pitcher. Pitt doesn’t have the type of payroll to eat bad contracts.

oh yeah MLB is really forcing this trade. like they would tell pittsburgh to send a trade request in for AJ Burnett. if thats the case then the owner cant think for him self and should just sell the team. you going to say the other 3 teams involved were forced to try for burnett too?

Depending who looks to be in the playoff picture this year (not counting out the Pirates, this is just an assumption) and depending on their needs and Burnett’s performance, they might be able to flip Burnett near the trade deadline for some players of worth.

Don’t be shocked if AJ performs reasonably well with the Pirates. He has a good arm, and a lower pressure situation would probably bring out the best in him. It’s a just a two year investment. He and Lackey might be the same type of player, able to perform well, even high pressure situations, but perhaps not able to deal with the fishbowl that is a place like NY or Boston.